


twisting and turning

by thorkidumpster



Series: like ivy grows [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Developing Relationship, Hurt Thor (Marvel), Loki and Thor Are Not Related, M/M, More tags to be added, Sugar Babies but no daddy kink, annoying brothers that know too much, working the relationship out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 04:03:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20285086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thorkidumpster/pseuds/thorkidumpster
Summary: it's time for thor to establish exactly what his relationship with loki is as the threat of a visit with mom to show loki off looms





	twisting and turning

**Author's Note:**

> probably would help if you read the first two parts. there's more sex and less feels there lol

* * *

October seems far away until it isn’t.

Frigga hasn’t forgotten Thor’s promise, texting him what seems like every week asking if a date had been set. At the time, agreeing to bring Loki to meet his mother had seemed like a good idea — ‘the time’ being when Thor had been whisked away on a beach vacation and love-drunk for most of it.

He’s still besotted, that’s not the issue. God, Loki’s on his mind at least once an hour. These days, every time he hears Loki’s text tone, every time he has a secret thought in the middle of class, his heart swells until it’s almost painful. Yeah, he’s fallen hard.

No, what Thor’s concerned about is, well... What he has with Loki isn’t exactly what one might consider a ‘conventional’ relationship. It’s more of a ‘older man with lots of money spoiling a younger, handsome man’ relationship.

He’s a sugar baby. And, after all, how many times has Bin called him that? He's probably used to it. Hell, he's probably seen a few sugar babies come and go from his brother's life.

There’s really no way to _sugarcoat_ that. Thor has sex with an older, wealthier man, who, in turn, pays for his school books, his gym membership, his half of the rent (much to Bin’s annoyance: “He could just pay for it all! I’m his brother!”), and takes him on fabulous vacations. Well, one fabulous vacation so far, but Thor’s pretty sure they kind-of-maybe-tentatively agreed on another next summer.

So, Thor’s not exactly sure where family fits into all that. Or if it even does. He does sort of know Loki’s family — which is a given, since he rooms with his brother. Thor’s even met their father and mother, Laufey and Farbauti respectively, on a few occasions.

But Loki has never expressed any interest in meeting Thor’s family.

Jesus Christ. Is this all one giant cock-up?

* * *

“Does Loki ever talk about me?”

Bin levels Thor with a strange look, eyes all squinty and brows bunched together like two caterpillars humping. Do caterpillars hump? Probably not, but still. “The fuck?”

Thor clears his throat. He’d… intended to bring that up a touch more naturally. Problem is, once something’s been rolling around in his brain for too long, it ends up projectile vomiting out of his mouth. Like when he first asked Jane what she thought about the whole Loki thing, and right now, after he all but flew out of his room because he heard Bin rummaging around in the kitchen. “Has, uh. Has Loki ever mentioned me to you?”

“Why would he?” Bin asks with a shrug. The words sting, more painful than the jellyfish had. The electric water kettle clicks off and Bin pours it into a cup of instant noodles, a staple in the kitchen of every sorry asshole pursuing a higher education. “I see you every day, dude.”

“Yeah.” Thor clears his throat again. “Er. Yeah.”

Bin shoots him a quick frown. “Is your throat hurting? Want me to heat water some tea? We got that fancy shit Loki bought for you, baby.” Bin punctuates this with a playful eyebrow waggle.

“Nah. I — nah.” Thor shakes his head then makes a split second decision to grab his keys from the hanger by the door and jams his feet into his flip-flops. “I’m heading out for a bit.”

Bin gives him another weird look. “Okay. You don’t need my permission.”

“No. Yeah, no.”

Thor shuts the front door on Bin’s “_Are you sure you’re okay?”_

Stupid. Thor’s feet savagely pound out the word on every stair as he descends. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

He throws himself into his car and slams the door shut, heedless of the fact his car is an actual Shitmobile that’s liable to fall apart at any given provocation. Thor presses his hands to his face and forces himself to breath. Why is he so upset about this? It’s so, well… _stupid_. He could just send a text to Loki right now — _hey, wanna meet up with my mom for dinner?_ — and be done with the whole damn thing.

Thor leans his head back against the headrest and opens his eyes to stare blankly at the weird beige fabric cover on the roof of his car. There’s tobacco stains from whoever owned the car before him, spreading across the fabric in disgusting yellow constellations.

If he sends that text to Loki, he could ruin everything. He could destroy their whole ‘arrangement’. Because he’s not even sure that this is a relationship. At least, to Loki.

Thor thinks it is. Hell, Thor’s pretty sure he’s head-over-heels in love with Loki.

But Thor is also keenly aware that his only other relationship was in third grade and lasted all of two weeks because his girlfriend wanted the cookie he was given as a ‘dessert’ to his lunch. She broke up with him when his mom stopped packing chocolate chip cookies, her favorite kind, and switched to animal crackers instead.

As he sits there ruminating — not about anything in particular, mind, just ruminating for the sake of it, because he doesn’t want to call this _sulking_ — his phone chimes. It’s Loki’s text tone.

Thor pulls his phone out of his pocket and opens the message.

_Hey Thor_, the text reads, _r u busy rn? Lmu_ _for dinner_

Despite himself, Thor snorts. Loki texts like how a baby boomer thinks ‘kids these days’ text. This is a perfect opening to send that text, to say, _yeah sure mind if my mom comes along since she’s in town?_Which isn’t a lie. She lives in town, therefore is always in town. It just sounds better than asking if mommy could come too out of the blue, he thinks. Thor works his jaw back and forth, indecisive, before slipping his phone back into his pocket.

For the first time in their arrangement — relationship — _fucking whatever_, Thor leaves Loki on read.

* * *

Thor ends up at the gym. He left in his sweatpants, and he has a spare pair of sneakers in the car. Not on purpose, but just because he keeps forgetting to bring them in. Honestly, he’s not even sure how they got there, but at this point, they’ve been faithfully in his car since he was about 17, so there they stayed until now: their golden moment of usefulness.

A good workout does wonders for his head. Nothing really gets him out of a dark cloud like the burning of his muscles, the visceral scent of sweat, the steady rhythm of the reps. His focus, pulled away from the intangible problem and forced onto something physical.

Just stepping inside the gym was already had Thor feeling lighter — safer, even. Nothing existed outside of these walls, nothing that wasn’t sweat and metal. After a quick warm-up, he starts in on the free weights. Just bicep curls, pretty simple, but comfortable in their familiarity.

In, he breaths. Out. In. Out. Steady and controlled.

Thor’s peace is shattered, however, a split second after he looks into the mirror to check his form. Loki is reflected, exiting the locker room and making a beeline for the treadmills. Three times in that short interval, he checks his phone with a frown.

He hasn’t seen Thor yet.

Loki must have come here after work to get a jog in before dinner. Thor knows he usually comes in the mornings, but he’s also aware that, like himself, Loki exercises when he’s stressed to clear his head.

Thor figures, well, he probably had a shit day at work.

Carefully, as if Loki will somehow hear it over the general buzz of the gym, Thor returns the weights to their place in the rack. Maybe it’s best if he just heads back home and pretends he is actually sick if Bin asks.

He all but tiptoes towards the exit. He’ll have to pass the treadmills to get there, but Loki’s slipped on his wireless headphones, so Thor figures he’s in the clear.

But just when he’s only a couple of meters away from the door, he hears, “Thor? Thor!” because is life, apparently, is a bad movie and nothing can go right today.

Open flight is not an option. Thor turns to face Loki, who hops off the treadmill to briskly walk over to him. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Loki replies, a grin on his face. He leans in, pressing a kiss to Thor’s lips that makes his heart pound. Even through all this damn confusion, Thor can’t help but to savor the casual intimacy of it. When Loki pulls away, Thor instinctively chases him for a second sweet little kiss. “Just who I wanted to talk to. Did you get my text?”

“Yeah, uh.” Thor shuffles his feet together like a guilty kid. He forces himself to stop, but the fidgeting just transfers itself stubbornly to his hands instead and he twists his fingers around each other. “Yeah. I was just leaving, though—”

“Did you want to get dinner?” Loki asks. The smile has faded a little from his face, sparking a burst of sickening, churning guilt.

“No, I gotta—Bin, he’s sick, I gotta go.” Thor ducks out of the gym and all but runs to cross the parking lot. When he gets in his Shitmobile, Thor cranes his neck to make sure Loki hadn’t followed. The coast is clear. He despises himself for thinking that.

Twice now today he’s run away from a Laufeyson.

* * *

When Thor enters the apartment, Bin’s on the couch, watching Netflix stream on the nice TV. He’s got a soda in one hand, and his head tilted to hold his phone against his ear with a shoulder. “—yeah, I promise, I’m fine,” he’s saying. He lifts his drink in greeting. “I’ll talk to you later, Thor’s home.”

Thor pads all of the meter from the front door to the kitchen. He pulls open the fridge, stares, then closes it. Next he opens the freezer and, finding nothing that sparks his interest, tries his luck with the fridge again, this time with lowered expectations.

“So I just talked to Loki,” Bin calls.

Thor grunts.

“He said that he saw you at the gym and you told him I was sick. He called, all worried and shit.”

Thor grunts again.

“Thor, buddy, you’re my best friend, but you need to get your fucking head out of the fridge and tell me what’s going on.”

The jars on fridge door rattle in protest as Thor swings it shut. “Nothing,” he snaps.

Bin rises from the couch. “It’s not nothing. You’re acting weird and now you’ve got Loki all on my ass by lying to him, and I frankly think I deserve to know why.” He plants his hands on his hips with a scowl, looking like his mother and even more like Loki. So much so that Thor can’t meet his eyes. When he doesn’t respond, Bin asks in a softer voice, “Did you two break up?”

“You can’t break up from a relationship never existed.” An icy burst of pain radiates in his chest and closes up his throat, but Thor forces out the next words. “We aren’t dating. I’m just his sugar baby, Bin. You’ve said it yourself plenty of times.”

Helblindi’s mouth drops open, actually _drops open_. His eyebrows do the caterpillar humping thing again. Then Bin snaps his jaw shut with a shake of his head. “You’re an idiot,” he tells Thor, “and if that’s how you feel about this whole thing—” he waves his hand “—then break up with my brother now before you seriously fuck him up.”

“What— what do you mean?”

“You need to talk to Loki, man,” Bin says. He sounds tired, old, as though every single all-nighter and early morning class he’s ever had has caught up to him all at once. He flops back down on the couch, clearly done with this conversation, and unpauses Netflix.

“Bin, what do you—”

Bin just turns the volume up to drown Thor out.

Left without a choice in the matter, Thor ducks into his room and collapses into his bed.

Six months ago, Loki jerked him off here for the first time. Last week, they fucked here, much to Bin’s annoyance, which had been clearly evident from the wrinkle of his nose when he saw them together at breakfast the next morning.

Thor rolls over. There’s a single black hair still clinging to the pillow. He plucks it off and tosses it onto the floor, then immediately regrets the action.

Sick to his stomach, Thor digs out his phone and open the chat with Loki.

_Hey_, he types, _is dinner still on the table? I think we need to talk._

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> ayy, i'm on tumblr because i'm a gremlin. check me out under the same name


End file.
